Catalytic pyrolysis of waste wood chip over mesoporous materials using Py-GC/MS

Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy (Py-GC/MS) was used to investigate the catalytic pyrolysis of waste wood chip. Two different mesoporous materials, i.e. meso-MFI having strong acid sites and mesoporous Al-MCM-48 having weak acid sites, were used as catalysts. The composition of the bio-oil produced from pyrolysis was analyzed using Py-GC/MS to evaluate the effect of catalytic upgrading. The hierarchical meso-MFI showed higher deoxygenation performance than Al-MCM-48, resulting in a better upgrading effect. In particular, meso-MFI was shown to have high aromatization capability, leading to high selectivity for high-value-added aromatics. The use of Al-MCM-48 produced an upgraded bio-oil compared to the non-catalytic pyrolysis as a result of its large specific surface area, but its activity was lower than that of meso-MFI due to its weak acidity.